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40.
"Bummer This Summer", a 2pp. news article on the recent eviction of the final few members of the Olompali commune, in BERKELEY TRIBE #6 (Berkeley, CA: The Red Mountain Tribe, August 8, 1969).
Newspaper format. 24pp. The Olompali Ranch commune was established in late 1967 by businessman Don McCoy on an estate north of San Francisco previously rented by the Grateful Dead. Its members, who called themselves the Chosen Family, held parties attended by the Dead (the back cover of 'Aoxomoxoa' features Thomas Weir's photograph of the band with prankster Ken Babbs and Olompali commune members), as well as Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, Hell's Angels, and the Diggers, for whom the commune baked bread for free distribution.
Following two drug busts, an electrical fire in early February 1969 that destroyed the mansion, and the deaths of two small children who drowned in the unfenced pool in June 1969, the commune was forced to break up, by which time McCoy was in the psychiatric ward in Marin General (he subsequently recovered, travelled to India, and helped Ciranjiva Roy establish the Foundation of Revelation in San Francisco).
Also: front cover photo by Paul Kagan; Chet Helms and the Family Dog on the Great Highway; Eldridge Cleaver in Algiers; Kinsey Institute seeks 5000 gay volunteeers; Charles Bukowski's "Notes of a Dirty Old Man" (2pp.); Diane di Prima poem; 'Easy Rider' reviewed; more.
Old central horizontal fold, o/w Very Good plus.
